This research brief offers insight into how college and university presidents of institutions with prison higher education programs talk about and explain providing postsecondary education to incarcerated learners. Against the backdrop of recent federal policy changes alongside the magnitude in program growth, we seek to document and understand how college and university presidents talk about prison higher education. Additionally, the recent expansion of Pell Grant eligibility for incarcerated students (see: FAFSA Simplification Act, 2019) alongside unprecedented speed in program growth, draws further importance to understanding how campus presidents articulate the reasons for prison higher education, as a way to inform future access to postsecondary education for incarcerated people as well as provide insight into the perceived relationship between the goals of higher education and prison higher education.

Through individual interviews with campus presidents, this research uses Critical Discourse Analysis to address the following questions:

How do campus presidents narrate their support of prison higher education and prison education programs listed in the National Directory of Higher Education in Prison Programs?

What narratives emerge among campus presidents, and what potential might they hold for ultimately expanding access to postsecondary education for incarcerated people?

Presidents share common discourses in describing their reasons for hosting a prison higher education program, amid competing priorities and potential pushback. In what follows, we focus on three themes elevated by campus presidents in discussing prison higher education: a) mission and margin; b) knowledge and experience; and c) duties of higher education.

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Acknowledgements

Partial funding support for this research was provided by Ascendium Education Group through the collaboration between the Research Collaborative on Higher Education in Prison and the Alliance in support of the Landscape of Higher Education in Prison Project. As one component of the Landscape Project, the Cohort Program supports practitioners who are working to create, sustain, and grow prison higher education programs through this project.